Insulins just keep getting smarter and smarter. This year, JDRF and InnoCentive brought their combined brainpower to solving one problem: how to create a glucose-responsive insulin.

Sam Talbot is a Top Chef alumnus, successful restaurateur, cookbook author—and a person with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The longtime JDRF supporter let us in on his best strategies for how to handle everything the holidays may throw at you—and have a ball doing it.

The only thing more important than a functioning beta cell is having a way to protect it. JDRF-funded researchers are hard at work building a shield to protect beta cells from an autoimmune attack that would otherwise destroy them.